For Immediate Release: Press Contacts: October 15, 2015 Eileen Chambers, 312-294-3092 Rachelle Roe, 312-294-3090 Photos Available By Request PR@CSO.org

PIANISTS SIR ANDRÁS SCHIFF AND EVGENY KISSIN RETURN TO

SYMPHONY CENTER FOR NOVEMBER RECITALS

Schiff Offers Second Installment of “The Last Sonatas” Project

November 1, at 3:00 p.m.

Kissin Performs Works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Albéniz and Larregla

November 15, at 2:00 p.m.

CHICAGO—The 2015/16 Symphony Center Presents (SCP) PowerShares QQQ Piano series

continues in November with recital programs at Symphony Center featuring two legendary

pianists Sir András Schiff and Evgeny Kissin on November 1 and November 15 respectively.

Schiff’s recital takes place on Sunday, November 1, at 3 p.m. and is the second installment of

“The Last Sonatas,” a three-part project focused on the late sonatas of Haydn, Mozart,

Beethoven and Schubert. A focal point of Schiff’s for several years, he notes that this

repertoire effectively captures each composer’s last words and demonstrates what he calls a

“harmonious unity.” The Los Angeles Times praised Schiff’s recent artistic journey remarking

that “he found song where others found formula.”

The November 1 program includes Mozart’s Sonata No. 17 in B-flat Major, K. 570; Haydn’s

Sonata No. 61 in D Major, Hob. XVI: 51, and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op.

110. Completing the program is Schubert’s Sonata in A Major, D. 959 with its tragic Andantino

movement that was written just months before the young composer’s death. Schiff offered the

first installment of the project in a March 2015 recital at Symphony Center and returns to

complete the project in a PowerShares QQQ Piano series recital on Sunday, February 14,

2016, at 3 p.m.

Evgeny Kissin returns to Symphony Center on Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m.. This marks

Kissin’s third appearance this year after a critically-acclaimed recital program in April 2015 and

his October 15 one-night-only performance as soloist with the CSO in Tchaikovsky’s Piano

Concerto No. 1 with Sir Andrew Davis on the podium.

Hailed for his “probing musical insights and beautiful tonal finish” by the Chicago Tribune,

Kissin offers a diverse November 15 program including Mozart’s Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K.

330; Beethoven’s virtuosic and tempestuous Appassionata Sonata No. 23 in F Minor and

Brahms’ Three Intermezzos, Op. 117. Kissin takes the audience on a trip to the Iberian

Peninsula for the remainder of the program which features works by Spanish composers Isaac

Albéniz and Joaquín Larregla.

Tickets for all Symphony Center Presents PowerShares QQQ Piano series concerts can be

purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312-294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony

Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604. For group rates, please call 312-

294-3040.

Artists, programs and prices are subject to change.

The Symphony Center Presents PowerShares QQQ Piano series is sponsored by PowerShares

QQQ.

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Symphony Center Presents Sunday, November 1, 3:00 p.m. PowerShares QQQ Piano Sir András Schiff, piano

The Last Sonatas: Part 2 MOZART Sonata No. 17 in B-flat Major, K. 570 BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 HAYDN Sonata No. 61 in D Major, Hob. XVI: 51 SCHUBERT Sonata in A Major, D. 959 Tickets: $35-$102

Symphony Center Presents Sunday, November 15, 2:00 p.m.* PowerShares QQQ Piano Evgeny Kissin, piano MOZART Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K. 330 BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57

(Appassionata) BRAHMS Three Intermezzos, Op. 117 ALBÉNIZ Granada ALBÉNIZ Cádiz ALBÉNIZ Córdoba ALBÉNIZ Asturias LARREGLA ¡Viva Navarra! Tickets: $55-$195 *NOTE: Special concert start time ____________________________________________________________________________________

Sir András Schiff Sir András Schiff is world-renowned and critically acclaimed as a pianist, conductor, pedagogue and lecturer. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1953, he started piano lessons at age five with Elisabeth Vadász. He continued his musical studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy with Professor Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados, and in London with George Malcolm. Having recently completed The Bach Project throughout the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 concert seasons, North America prepares for The Last Sonatas, a series of three recitals comprising the final three sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. The Last Sonatas takes place over the course of the next two seasons with the complete series slated for New York’s Carnegie Hall, San Francisco’s Symphony Hall, Los Angeles’s Disney Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, Washington Performing Arts’ Strathmore Hall, The Vancouver Recital Society and University Musical Society of The University of Michigan. Further recitals are scheduled in Napa, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Scottsdale and Kansas City. In October 2015, the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic host this versatile artist in a series of concerts with orchestra and chorus – Sir András’s first performances in North America on the podium and at the piano with chorus, orchestra and soloists. In his role as lecturer, Sir András Schiff has put together a round table forum to be presented on December 17 by New York’s 92nd Street Y, addressing the pianist’s belief that it is the responsibility of every politically-informed artist to speak out against racial injustice and persecution. Violinist Gidon Kremer and writer Assaf Gavron join the dialogue. As pedagogue, he partners with 92Y and SubCulture for “Sir András Schiff Selects: Young Pianists” – a three-concert series in February & March curated by Sir András and introducing rising young pianists Kuok-Wai Lio, Roman Rabinovich and Adam Golka. Sir András Schiff has established a prolific discography, and since 1997 has been an exclusive artist for ECM New Series and its producer, Manfred Eicher. Recordings for ECM include the complete solo piano music of Beethoven and Janácek, two solo albums of Schumann piano pieces, his second recordings of the Bach Partitas and Goldberg Variations, The Well Tempered Clavier, Books I and II and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations recorded on two instruments: a Bechstein from 1921 and an original fortepiano from Vienna 1820 – the place and time of the composition. The pianist recently completed a recording in July at Beethovenhaus, Bonn on the Franz Brodmann Fortepiano used also for the Diabelli album. The all-Schubert disc featuring Sonata in B (D960), Sonata in G (D894), Moments Musicaux (D780) and the Impromptus will be released in fall 2015. Orchestral engagements find Sir András Schiff performing mainly as both conductor and soloist. In 1999 he created his own chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca, which consists of international soloists, chamber musicians and friends. He also works every year with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Since childhood he has enjoyed playing chamber music, and from 1989 until 1998 was Artistic Director of the internationally praised "Musiktage Mondsee" chamber music festival near Salzburg. In 1995, together with Heinz Holliger, he founded the "Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte" in Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland. In 1998 he started a similar series, entitled "Homage to Palladio" at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. From 2004 to 2007 he was Artist in Residence of the Kunstfest Weimar. In the 2007-8 season, he was Pianist in Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic. Sir András Schiff has been awarded numerous international prizes and his relationship with publisher G Henle continues over the next few years with a joint edition of Mozart’s piano concertos and both volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier. He is an Honorary Member of the Beethoven House in Bonn in recognition of his interpretations of Beethoven’s works, has received the Wigmore Hall Medal in appreciation of 30 years of music-making at Wigmore Hall, the Schumann Prize awarded by the city of Zwickau, the Golden Mozart-Medaille by the International Stiftung Mozarteum, the Order pour le mérite for Sciences and Arts, the Grosse Verdienstkreuz mit Stern der Bundesrepublik Deutschland and was made a Member of Honour of Vienna Konzerthaus. He was given The Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal, has been made a Special Supernumerary Fellow of Balliol College (Oxford, UK), and received honorary degrees from Leeds University and Music Schools in Budapest, Detmold and Munich.

In the spring of 2011 Schiff attracted attention because of his opposition to the alarming political development in Hungary, and in view of the ensuing attacks on him from some Hungarian Nationalists decided not to perform again in his home country. In June 2014, he was awarded a Knighthood by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the 2014 Birthday Honours. Evgeny Kissin Evgeny Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have earned him the veneration and admiration deserved only by one of the most gifted classical pianists of his generation and, arguably, generations past. He is in demand the world over, and has appeared with many of the world’s great conductors, including Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Dohnanyi, Giulini, Karayan, Levine, Maazel, Muti and Ozawa, as well as all the great orchestras of the world. Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971 and began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at the age of two. At six years old, he entered a special school for gifted children, the Moscow Gnessin School of Music, where he was a student of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, who has been his only teacher. At the age of ten, he made his concerto debut playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 466 and gave his first solo recital in Moscow one year later. He came to international attention in March 1984 when, at the age of twelve, he performed Chopin’s Piano Concertos 1 and 2 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic under Dmitri Kitaenko. This concert was recorded live by Melodia, and a two-LP album was released the following year. Given the astounding success of this recording, Melodia proceeded to release five more LPs of live performances in Moscow over the following two years. Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe; his first tour of Japan in 1986; and in December 1988 he performed with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in a New Year’s concert broadcast internationally. In 1990, Kissin made his first appearance at the BBC Promenade Concerts in London and, in the same year, made his North American debut, performing both Chopin piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta. The following week he opened Carnegie Hall’s Centennial season with a spectacular debut recital, recorded live by BMG Classics. In 2015/16, Kissin opens the Carnegie Hall season with the New York Philharmonic and appears with Boston and Chicago Symphonies and the Met Orchestra. He is also the focus of Carnegie Perspectives series performing two recitals in one week – the first pianist to do so in Carnegie Hall after Horowitz - a chamber music program and a Jewish Poetry recital. Further US recitals take place in Chicago, Dallas and Washington DC. Musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Evgeny Kissin. He received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the Best Performance of the Year in 1986 (his first performance in Japan). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy. He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and three years later became Musical America’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year. In 1997 he received the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic, the youngest ever awardee. Kissin has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music; the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia’s highest musical honors; an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London; and most recently an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the Hong Kong University. Kissin’s recordings have also received numerous awards and accolades, having contributed significantly to the library of masterpieces recorded by the world’s greatest performers. Past awards have included the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands, and the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France. His recording of works by Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky (RCA Red Seal) won

him a Grammy in 2006 for Best Instrumental Soloist and, in 2002, he was named Echo Klassik Soloist of the Year. His most recent Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra) was awarded in 2010 for his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (EMI Classics). Kissin’s extraordinary talent inspired Christopher Nupen’s documentary film, Evgeny Kissin: The Gift of Music, which was released in 2000 on video and DVD by RCA Red Seal.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org/ Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Since 2010, the preeminent conductor Riccardo Muti has served as its 10th music director. Pierre Boulez is the CSO’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus, Yo-Yo Ma is its Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek are its Mead Composers-in-Residence.

From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast repertoire. Its renowned musicians annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago and, each summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival. They regularly tour nationally and internationally. Since 1892, the CSO has made 58 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.

People around the globe listen to weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings on the WFMT

radio network and online at cso.org/radio. Recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards,

including two in 2011 for Muti’s recording with the CSO and Chorus of Verdi's Messa da Requiem (Muti’s first of four releases with the CSO to date). Find details on these and many other CSO recordings at www.cso.org/resound.

The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, which also includes the Chicago Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, Director and Conductor) and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a training ensemble for emerging professionals. Through its prestigious Symphony Center Presents series, the CSOA presents guest artists and ensembles from a variety of genres—classical, jazz, world, and contemporary.

The Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO offers community and education programs that annually engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages and backgrounds. Through the Institute and other activities, including a free annual concert with Muti and the CSO, the CSO is committed to using the power of music to create connections and build community.

The CSO is supported by thousands of patrons, volunteers and institutional and individual donors. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO. The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the Negaunee Music Institute.